Distressed renters turned to anti-depressants and sleeping tablets due to stress caused by the end of the eviction ban.
One retired couple told Tánaiste Micheál Martin that they were “totally stressed out and running out of options”.
The email is one of dozens sent to senior Government ministers and released to the Irish Mirror under Freedom of Information.
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While some writers called for the ban to be extended as they were facing homelessness, others praised the decision to lift the ban.
One email sent to the Tánaiste on the day the Government announced it would not extend the ban said that an older couple had turned to medication due to stress.
“My husband and I are living in a rented house,” the writer said.
“My husband has been working in [redacted] and paid taxes and therefore gets a small pension. That’s why we can’t get a council house.
“At our age, no bank will even talk to us about credit.
“Needless to say we don’t qualify for any of your Government schemes. We also can’t afford to pay €1,500 for any rental accommodation.
“Since the eviction notice, we’re taking antidepressants in the daytime and sleeping tablets in the night. Never did before. We’re totally stressed out and running out of options.”
The email was forwarded to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien.
Another email to Minister O’Brien stated that they did not have a “soul to turn to for support” after receiving a Notice to Quit.
They stated that they asked the local authority to buy the home they were being evicted from under the Tenant in Situ scheme.
“I hope you can understand how frightened I am, and that you will do everything within your power as minister to support the purchase of this home,” they said.
Another renter, who had been looking for accommodation for six months, pleaded with Minister O’Brien to “send help”.
One correspondent said that they were “writing to you with tears in my eyes” as they were “panicked” about what would happen to their family when the ban was lifted.
“I have been searching for a property to rent. No hope.
“My family has lived in a rented property for the past years, and we have struggled to make ends meet during the pandemic.
“We have always paid our rent on time, but we are barely scraping by with the rising living costs.
“The eviction ban has provided us with a much-needed sense of security, knowing that we could not be forced to leave our homes during this difficult time.”
Some of the emails did, however, welcome the lifting of the ban, saying that “common sense had prevailed”.
Many landlords mentioned wanting to put their homes on the market due to the high tax bills. Some expressed a desire for their homes to be sold to councils.
One landlord lamented that due to the current rules on rent controls, they were spending more money renting out their property than they were making.
They explained to Minister O’Brien that they had to pay to fix a shower in their rental apartment and, as a result, could not afford to fix the shower in their own home for a month.
They said that people were “conveniently failing to acknowledge the small landlord or accidental landlord like myself who has absorbed so much of the cost in order to maintain the property and provide accommodation at a reasonable cost to the tenant”.
“With all the commotion of landlords leaving the market the elephant in the room here is the draconian rate of tax being paid by the landlord on the property. I am just about covering costs with my apartment but I still have a tax bill to pay.....go figure that out!!”
One landlord told Minister O’Brien that there was “no incentive to be a small landlord in this country”. They argued that they would be €3,000 a year better off if they moved into their property with their tenant and used the “rent a room scheme”, where a room can be rented out tax-free up to €14,00 a year.
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